Confab deadlock: S-South leaders insist on true federalism on July 17, 2014 / in News 12:45 am / Comments BY Emma Amaize, Sam Oyadongha, Simon Ebegbulem, Emma Una, Egufe Yafugborhi, Tom Mose & Chioma Onuegbu PROMINENT leaders and stakeholders in the South-South, yesterday, called on delegates from the region at the national conference to walk out on the next sitting if the confab was not ready to adapt to true federalism by allowing the regions to control their resources. Reacting to Monday’s deadlock at the confab over derivation votes, they insisted that the North cannot dictate to the rest of the country and rejected the 18 per cent derivation being proposed for mineral producing areas. The leaders also ruled out the suggestion of five per cent derivation for the reconstruction of states in the northern region ravaged by insurgency and internal conflicts, saying it was a non-issue. True fiscal federalism They said that the way out of the logjam was true fiscal federalism and 50 per cent derivation to oil producing states, as practiced in pre-independence Nigeria. They warned that South-South delegates, who compromise on derivation should contemplate returning to the region at the end of the confab. The leaders, among them former Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Rowland Owie and Senator Francis Okpozo, who spoke to Vanguard in Benin City, Edo State, warned that peace may continue to elude the country unless the people of the Niger Delta were allowed to benefit from their God-given oil resouces. Also, former national chairman of the Association of Traditional Rulers of Oil Minerals Producing Communities of Nigeria, ATROMPCON, the paramount ruler of Siembiri Kingdom in Delta State, HRM Charles Ayemi-Botu, said in Warri: “It is really disappointing that people went to the confab to turn the truth on its head.” Senator Opkozo Senator Opkozo said: “I said it from the beginning that the areas that are controversial, such as revenue allocation and devolution of power, will bring crisis to the conference. Revenue allocation is a sensitive matter which all concerned must handle diligently. The issue is this: every government in this country, states, local government and the federal, depends on the revenue that comes from one area alone. “Some areas were neglected in the colonial administration, at the time when the groundnut pyramid and others were in existence in the North, as the Federal Government did not tamper with the 50 per cent that was accruable to the groundnut and cocoa proceeds, but when the military took over and by the time revenue from oil was at the peak, revenue due to oil producing communities was drastically reduced to the detriment of oil producing communities in the South- South. - See more at: vanguardngr/2014/07/confab-deadlock-s-south-leaders-insist-true-federalism/#sthash.Lv9ZjsDt.dpuf
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 08:57:00 +0000
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